U.e (Ulla) - Hometown Girl

First, the necessary disambiguation: U.e. is the latest moniker to be adopted by the ever active American sound artist & composer, Ulla Strauss, and 28912 a new mysteriously labeled imprint, possibly operated by Ulla herself. The changes appear mostly cosmetic in nature, since Hometown Girl bears many of the hallmarks for which her music has become known and loved, existent in a self-generated interzone between disintegrating ambience, dreampop romanticism, glitched electronics and narrative impressionism. This is firmly Ulla territory, and yet it feels like an evolution is in process, too. Perhaps the ambiguity inherent in the name change is a purposeful defence mechanism, since these 12 tracks constitute an undeniably deeply personal collection, not least because of the presence of Ulla's voice, albeit mostly processed, but as on the bracingly intimate 'Drawing of Me', sometimes naked and direct. The title suggests an exploration of identity, which makes it all the more intriguing that Ulla is choosing to obscure aspects of hers somewhat. What do you show when you take away something as biographical as your given name? If Hometown Girl is evidently an Ulla album, then it's also a document of an artist in favour of impermanence and subtle flux, reshaping a voice in pursuit of new expressions and feelings but ultimately, in the end articulating its inherent, essential self. It's a bit of a Wizard of Oz trick, the journey leading back to your own front door. You can't escape yourself I guess, the hometown girl U.e. allows Ulla to return to without having stood still.